How Life Management Can Unveil Your Desires
Have you ever heard of the school of thought that is Stoicism? Well, it has ten main principles,
- Living in agreement with nature
- Live by virtue
- Focus on what you can control, accept what you can’t.
- Distinguish from good and evil, and (preferred) indifferent things.
- Take action – The true philosopher is a warrior of the mind
- Practise misfortune – Ask “What could go wrong.”
- Add a reserve clause to your planned activities
- Amor Fati – Love everything that happens
- Turn obstacles into opportunities – Perception is critical.
- Be Mindful – Stoic mindfulness is where it all begins
Follow the link above to read what Nils and Jonas have to say about it all. The philosophy is an extremely well-prepared platform from which to launch your organisational goals. As with anything sustainable, we need a solid foundation from which to build. So set your mind first, And stop running in circles.
Reminds me of a song by Noel Harrison called “Windmills of your Mind.”
Here are the lyrics: “Click Here.”
Knowledge is Power
We live in an age full of data. So many sources from which to harvest our thoughts, it could take a lifetime sorting the wheat from the chaff to form the best strategies to live out our lives.
Luckily for you, I’ve taken the work out of the formula so that you can spend more time doing the things you want to. Information isn’t power, although the use of that data in advantageous ways is, and that is called knowledge.
Laser-like focus
There are so many distractions around us every single day; it makes it almost impossible actually to keep your mind on one thing at a time. This is a new skill that must be learnt to push forward with the essential things in our lives. Never let the joys of entertainment consume your life because before you know it, you won’t have any (time that is) left in the tank.
Prioritise everything you do and keep a diary so you can allocate specific chunks of “time” to a particular task. And remember there is never any rush to do these things, so be calm. Here’s the crux with the laser-like focus mindset, it’s a little thing called “procrastination”. You ever experienced it?
Well, I’ll let you into a little secret, most everybody has run into that little gremlin at some time in their lives. But you know what sorts the winners from the losers. The ability to take action no matter how hard your mind works to put it off till “whenever”. Here’s a little trick I use is to reverse my feelings and voices in my head, e.g.:
If and when my mind starts telling me not to do it yet, I take that as a signal to dig in and counter the little devil. It will try and fight with me, but I know that if I keep plugging away at the task I set for myself, it WILL get done ( through MY will). And I feel so much better for it afterwards.
Vested Interests – Invest in Yourself
Most people have been conditioned by the bell and whistle, which in and of itself isn’t a good or bad thing. It’s just an efficient way to organise groups of people into time slots etc. (think “Pavlov“). We tend to work hourly for a set wage, and of course, it becomes alien to work for nothing now to have something tomorrow (say in a year). This is one of the reasons most people have short term mindsets and keep putting things off because deep down they want it now.
Rested Interests
Make sure you take plenty of rest though, it’s the best way to grow.
As I stated in one of my earlier posts, we aren’t supposed to burn ourselves out. We “NEED” to give our brains and bodies time to recuperate, ready for our next adventure.
Sleep deprivation is a form of torture, so don’t do it to yourself. Baby steps until you’ve gained some experience, and then ramp up your speed (That’ll be the more natural path), and you’ll begin to have fun doing it. Just make sure you keep starting, over and over and over again. Repetition and persistence are key (they build new patterns “habits”).
Now it’s Time to Play!
And I don’t mean hit the circus, although there are many routes to take when taking the time to play. Do you remember learning to play a game which needed a lot of skill to become good?
My example is a racquet game called squash. It’s a very fast paced game and requires skill, fitness and stamina. To get to a level in which I found it fun took just over a year of practice. And I can tell you this; it was frustrating at times. But I knew I would become good at it, and enjoy it much more (which I did).
The point I’m making is this. In every endeavour in our lives, we come across obstacles and challenges, and those barriers can become hard to overcome. But, when we persevere, we learn to change our habits of old and replace them with the new “fun” (directed by us) habits. And this is the point in which things take off. And we learn to work and play at the same time.
So I’ll leave it there for now (ponder over it for a few weeks)
To be continued…..
Cordially
P.S Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment so we can create an opportunity to share our stories.
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